21st Century Retrogression

This is way better than some 4.5’s out there, to rate it as a 3.2 is a disgrace. Even martial peak is somehow rated higher than this… While I won’t be calling this a hidden gem or anything along those lines, this is certainly better than most Murim manhwa’s currently out. It takes a unique approach in story, apart from the whole modern Murim setting.

I agree with Kiestrel, the execution isn’t the best, the beginning moves immensely fast and there’s hardly any pause in between everything. With that being said, it’s still pretty good. It does a lot of things current Murim manhwas are afraid of doing, taking the fundamentals of Murim itself and playing around with it, whether it be the power system or the hierarchical system, and the factions that lie within Murim.

I especially love the MC’s resolution and how he’s forced to use his power, being a Taoist, he’s bound to doing good deeds if he wants to reach his end goal, being immortal. Although the MC isn’t an outright righteous guy, he’s conflicted with doing things that could be considered bad to achieve a greater goal and vise versa. The MC is also strong but is still conflicted if he’s doing things wrong as he tries to reach immortality. (This is an extremely simplified version of how he becomes stronger, as elixirs are very important in cultivating in this series but that’s another conversation entirely.)

Overall, this series does a lot of things wrong but the things it does right, it does RIGHT. At least to me, some readers probably won’t like it, I know I didn’t, especially during the earlier chapters but as I got accustomed to it, my enjoyment from reading this series increased tenfold.

As for the art, it isn’t exactly the best but it’s not bad. The real issue I could see readers having is the translation being inconsistent here and there.

TLDR: Good series, it lacks in some areas but it’s better than most Murim manhwas out now while still being relatively entertaining.